St. Charles traffic estimates don't win friends

St. Charles' massive Towne Centre project inched forward Tuesday night, much like traffic projections show cars will creep along Prairie Street when the project is completed.

The Towne Centre project would bring a mix of residential and commercial uses to the former site of the St. Charles Mall. The project is so large it may take up to seven years to complete, if approved, and require some 3,400 parking spaces, including multiple parking garages, to accommodate the uses.

The project has to get past the city's plan commission first, then win approval from the city council before it becomes a reality. The economy will also likely need to turn before shovels hit the ground, but the developer is going through the approval process now to be ready to go when Wall Street rises once again.

Tuesday night saw the classic concerns of a neighborhood that's been solely residential in nature from its origin until it took dramatic steps to commercialization. In addition to the Towne Centre project, residents along Prairie will see the traffic repercussions from the city's First Street redevelopment project. First Street was approved several years ago, meaning the front line of traffic warfare is now centered on the Towne Center project.

Residents learned Tuesday night the Towne Center project will cause up to a 40 percent increase in traffic on Prairie by 2018 if the entire project comes to life.

Residents complained that they already have problems with people cutting down side streets such as Seventh, 12th and 13th streets to get to Route 64. There's an even bigger problem with making right and left turns onto and off of Prairie because of the endless lines of cars streaming through, they said.

Parking consultants suggested adding traffic lights, medians and additional turning lanes to ease the concerns, but residents were still opposed.

Plan commissioners didn't seem to buy the solutions either, perhaps, in part, because some of them live in the area directly impacted by the increased Towne Centre traffic.

Commissioners asked the parking consultant to go back to the drawing board and consider the additional traffic impact of both Towne Centre and First Street combined. Those results will come back to the commission likely next month.

Traffic: Consultants suggest more lights, medians, lanes